Six Most Common Mistakes Churches Make on Social Media

Social media is still a new tool that many churches are using to reach people in their community. Like it is with anything new, mistakes are made along the way. Most of the time they are accidental and harmless, but sometimes they can really embarrass the church and, consequently, hurt the cause of Christ.

What are these mistakes that churches make on social media? Here are just six of the most common:

Using poor grammar and spelling. You might think it would be standard procedure to check the spelling and grammar of social media updates, but it’s not. While I understand the shelf life of a tweet or Facebook post is relatively short, we should still strive for excellence and display command of the English language.

Not getting permission to post pictures of kids at the church. This happens less frequently than the other mistakes, but the consequences usually include an irate parent. This is also very simple to avoid. At the very least, notify parents ahead of posting pictures of kids, or have them sign a waiver allowing the church to use pictures of their children. Proactive communication by the church often goes a long way to easing parental concerns.

Doing too much or too little. This mistake has much to do with strategy—or in this case a lack thereof. Not knowing what to post, when to post, and where to post can lead to less engagement by your audience online. A quick rule of thumb for church accounts: try to keep Facebook posts to less than four per day and public tweets to no more than one every two hours.

Failure to use hashtags. If you’re hosting an event or special service—or even a regular worship service with a sermon series name—brainstorm and use a hashtag that can be used to engage your audience more effectively. Some examples: #ChristmasAtTheMoon, #EasterAtTheBallpark, #MakeLifeMatter.

Posting inappropriate content. This is another mistake that seems obvious to avoid, but it’s the one that can cause the most public problems. This is also another reason to have more than one administrator on every account. In most instances, the content is posted accidentally or is posted from the wrong account using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. The administrator may post something they meant to send from their personal account or in a text, and instead of going to one or just a few people, it goes to several hundred or several thousand. Mistakes happen, but extra care is also needed.

Not responding to questions in a timely manner. Want to give your church a bad reputation in the community? Don’t respond to simple questions or requests from guests. Churches have a certain perception in their communities. When you are slow to respond or fail to do so altogether, you are telling people in the community that they don’t matter to you.

I’m sure there are other mistakes to add to this list. What have you seen (or what have you done) that could be added to this short list of common mistakes?

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week, and the managing editor of LifeWayPastors.com. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.

21 Comments

Mark
on March 17, 2016 at 8:07 am

Another is being a moderate on social media and a hard-line conservative in the pulpit. This difference is amazing if not bordering on dishonesty. I realize that in some churches those in the pews don’t want to hear moderate anything but Jesus spoke to and ate with both Pharisees and Roman tax collectors. Just pay attention to what you say and to whom.

Another is misrepresenting your church. If your church is traditional, don’t present it as hip and contemporary, or vice versa. The “language” used should fit with what would be experienced in house by those who attend your services. If you’re a King James church don’t use The Message on social media. The pictures used should accurately reflect the constituency one would encounter in your church family. If you’re a country church in a farming community your pictures shouldn’t give the idea that you are full of young, hip, suburbanites. Don’t try to come off as a mega church, unless you are one. Don’t give the impression that your worship leader is a mid 20’s, guitar playing singer fresh out of Hillsong school, if in fact your grandmother is still playing the piano/organ and your great uncle still leading the choir after 40 years in service. In short, just be real about who you are as a church. People want authentic faith expressed in a real way, not pretending to be what we aren’t hidden in “calling things that are not as though they were.”

Not social media related, but a church that I have attended on several occasions had some outreach cards made up, and were strongly encouraged to not use pictures of people actually in the congregation. What they ended up with was a stock image of mostly white people with token black and Hispanic families included to represent their legitimately multicultural church that is easily half Asian.

The use of fake people in church advertisement is pretty widespread, and usually super obvious.

I understand the concerns about authenticity, but some of these issues strike me as a bit trivial, particularly the one about Bible translations. Our church’s website has a quote from the New International Version, but I usually preach from the King James Version. Does that make me inauthentic? I don’t think so. I use a variety of translations in my study and devotional reading, and will often refer to them in my sermons. I usually preach from the KJV – not because I’m a “KJV only” man – but because I love the beauty of its language.

Instead of demanding that churches be “authentic”, perhaps you should be less hasty in judging the proverbial book by its cover.

I really don’t think that’s what he’s doing, but to use your own metaphor, if I were to slip the dust cover from my copy of Crime and Punishment onto a spare thesaurus I have sitting around the house, and let you borrow it, you would probably be pretty disappointed when you tried to read it.

You use scare quotes around the word authentic like being authentic is somehow bad. I get that the term has had some baggage added to it in recent years, but it is a serious charge especially when you consider that much of what a church does on social media could be considered advertising. People don’t tend to like false advertising, so I don’t think that it’s too much to encourage churches to avoid that.

Let’s throw out the word authentic, rather than asking them to be authentic, how about we just ask them to be honest.

I am all in agreement on the slow to respond statement. It’s a complete sign of disrespect and lack of care/courtesy. Also ,the way the reply is sent ,if at all .many older members just don’t text or use e-mail ,they still use only voice (phone ) contacts .Why do younger pastors think everyone in their congregation should bow to and conform to their preferred form of communication .where is the respect for the most faithful group of members in any church group .

My pet peeve is when a church sets up a website, maintains it well for a while, then lets is go derelict. For several weeks sermons and announcements are posted but then months go by with no content being added. I hate to see a blogger that I like quit blogging. But if a church is no longer willing to maintain its website, take it down.

#5. Inappropriate content is my biggest pet peeve.
A pastor of a church must keep in mind that all he says and communicates on social media is a reflection of both himself and the church he represents. I have seen incidences where known pastors of churches are using very crude coarse words or phrases in their discussion which is very unbecoming of the professionalism that must be characteristic of the position. The potty mouth and toilet humor has absolutely no place crossing the lips or keyboard of those claiming to serve and represent the church.

I keep coming back to this article as it is a bit unsettling to me. Perhaps you could help me understand the intentions and purposes of churches using social media. I have a hard time seeing salvation and baptism pictures used to promote a church. If the glory is truly all to God then why do we not leave it up to the one being baptised /converted to decide if they wish to publicly display such an intimate transformational moment of their life? Are we, the church, using the transformation of others as a means to highlight our church organization? Is it marketing at the expense of others privacy? It is seeming to increase in popularity, the marketing strategies of churches to lure people under their showy “big top” production of Sunday service.